Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/250

236 dollars, or thirty millions of pounds our money. One per cent. on this, compared with any thing we ever yet paid, would be deemed a very heavy tax. Yet I think thoſe who manage well, and uſe reaſonable economy, could pay one and a half per cent. and maintain their houſehold comfortably in the mean time, without aliening any part of their principle, and that the people would ſubmit to this willingly for the purpoſe of ſupporting their preſent conteſt. We may ſay then, that we could raiſe, and ought to raiſe, from one million to one million and a half of dollars annually, that is from three hundred to four hundred and fifty thouſand pounds, Virginia money.

Of our expences it is equally difficult to give an exact ſtate, and for the ſame reaſon. They are moſtly ſtated in paper-money, which varying continually, the legiſlature endeavors at every ſeſſion, by new corrections, to adapt the nominal ſums to the value it is wiſhed they would bear. I will ſtate them therefore in real coin, at the point at which they endeavor to keep them.